agapi marketing Archives - Page 23 of 50

How Online Review Sites Place a Huge Impact On Businesses

January 9, 2018September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, client reviews, online marketing, online reviews

Online business reviews can make a huge impact on your company.

Most small businesses and companies don’t think about online reviews and the impact they can have both positively and negatively on your business.

Some business owners are afraid to find no reviews, and some are afraid of finding bad reviews. These are definitely not reasons to ignore the power of review sites.

Business reviews are more important now than ever for several reasons. It might come as a surprise to find out that business reviews for some sites now show up in the top search engine results for that company.

For example, try doing a search such as reviews for ‘company name’ and look at the results. Review sites such Angie’s List, Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Yellow Pages, and Better Business Bureau are going to show up at the top of the list due to the ranking power of a website that gets thousands of visitors leaving comments about ‘x-brand’ company.

Moreover, it’s clear that business reviews aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they are becoming more and more popular.

That is why it’s more important now than ever to get involved and build a presence in the online review community. These types of reviews are invaluable to any business for many different reasons. If you get good reviews, then you can look at those and see what you are doing right that makes your customers happy.

On the other hand, negative reviews can show you where you need to improve, and you can either defend yourself online if you’ve done nothing wrong, or you can make things right with an unhappy customer — which shows that you are accountable and genuine.

This builds trust and authority for your small business and also confidence in any future customers that might be looking at how you handle complaints.

The one thing that you don’t want is to have unmanaged online negative reviews without taking the necessary action. This will hurt your business.

Anyone knows that having a good reputation can drive conversions. And with so many businesses out there competing for business, it’s a good idea to manage your online reviews.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

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15 Strategies to Boost Your Website’s Conversion Rate

January 7, 2018September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, conversion, growing your business, online advertising, online marketing, web design, website

Is a low website conversion rate getting in the way of your business’s success?

Here are 15 of our tips to optimize your conversion rate:

1. Find your value proposition. What is it that makes you different from your competitors? Why are you the best choice? Whatever it is, make it central.

2. Have a clear headline. Your headline is the first thing your customers will see on your landing page. Make sure it’s easy to understand and gets your point across.

3. Feature your phone number prominently. Make it easy to find and use a big font to let them know you are accessible.

4. Add a video. A 2-3 min video that explains benefits and features or shows your product in action will capture the attention of your site visitors.

5. Get rid of those cheesy stock photos. Stock photos may be high quality, but they look fake, damaging your credibility.

6. Reduce required form fields. Don’t make your customers put in any more information than the bare minimum of what you need to know. The less work they have to do, the more likely they are to do it.

7. Put your Call-to-Action (CTA) above the fold. Your site visitors should be able to see it without scrolling down.

8. Use a CTA button instead of a link. Text links can be hard to spot. Using a button makes your CTA stand out.

9. Use a contrasting color for your CTA button. Make your CTA button even more visible by choosing a color that contrasts with the rest of your website’s color scheme.

10. Utilize your CTA button’s text. Instead of a plain old “submit,” use your button text to tell your visitors what to expect after they click that button with text like “get started!”

11. Create urgency. Limited-time incentives give your customers a reason to take action now.

12. Display “real” testimonials. Show that your testimonials aren’t fake by using full names and pictures.

13. Display your award badges. Show off any honors you’ve gotten to add wow factor.

14. Add trust badges. Boast about the great reviews you’ve gotten on sites like Yelp, Facebook, or the Better Business Bureau.

15. Add a live chat feature. Live chat support adds value.

We understand that business owners like you are pressed for time. We’re here to help!

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

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Important Design Elements that Your Website Should Have

January 3, 2018September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, mobile responsive, online marketing, web design, website, website marketing

What are the important design elements you should have on your website?

There has been a lot of testing and research done over the past couple of years, and it’s no surprise that more people are using mobile devices to find products or services. The one thing that may or may not come as a surprise is that many businesses haven’t adapted to these changes, or even tested their website. Prioritizing user experience should be the first thing you or your website designer should do.

Any website needs to have design elements that make the website easily seen, and also make it easy to navigate should be on the top of this list. Many websites are starting to get rid of images because they take too long for mobile devices to load, if too many are used. However, if you do use images, they should be scaled down, and the images should use text, such as a card menu seen on Microsoft homepage. This one easy design element shows people what they are looking for quickly, and describes it easily.

And if you’re doing to use video or animation, then fast-loading cinemagraphs are the way to go for mobile devices. These small half-photo, half-animated clips, are quite popular, and load quickly. Make sure that your copy is relevant to the visitor quickly depending on their query, and what got them to your website in the first place. Give a quick big picture of what your site is all about, and what you offer the minute the customer gets there. Realize they may be on a mobile device, and test it, or have your website designer continually test and improve the experience.

Make your site easy to navigate, create different designs for the different sections, but use a consistent theme. Use eye-catching transitions from section to section to keep the user interested. And make sure the font for your copy can be easily seen. Visitors still do the quick scan, so if they quickly scan, make sure you grab their attention quickly. Use custom visual and iconography, or images and symbols, that tells your brand story and shows some personality of who and what your business is about.

All of these design trends are based on statistics. And with the statistics comes the realization that effective website design that makes life easier for users when they visit your site, should be the main goal of you and your website designer. Your competitors are optimizing their websites, if you don’t optimize your site, then you will be left behind.

Learn more about optimizing and using the latest design trends to improve customer experience.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

How PPC can Compliment SEO for Better Results

January 1, 2018September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter adwords, agapi marketing, google adwords, marketing strategy, online advertising, online marketing, PPC, SEO

There are many reasons why you should use AdWords Pay-per-click Marketing:

1. It’s an effective way to achieve instant traffic
2. It’s cost-effective
3. It gives you fast, measurable results

However, did you know that using PPC hand-in-hand with SEO can increase the overall effectiveness of your marketing? Here’s how.

1. PPC only keeps the traffic flowing for however long you keep it running, but there’s no reason its usefulness should stop there.

2. That data gathered from the PPC campaign will tell you what keywords are and aren’t effective. You can then use this data to form your SEO strategy.

With PPC, we can:

1. Use PPC data to find out your best performing keywords, copy and landing pages.
2. Compare Google Console data to PPC data for keywords intelligence.

Analyzing PPC data and drawing out a strategy can be overwhelming for a business owner like you! That’s why we’re here to help.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

How to Leverage Digital Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Your Business

December 24, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, growing your business, marketing, online marketing, online reputation management

Many businesses don’t seem to take advantage of online word-of-mouth marketing.

In fact, some businesses don’t understand how it can be leveraged so that they can take advantage of the huge rewards it brings.

One thing to remember when it comes to word-of-mouth is that friends and family will believe what they hear from each other over any other form of advertising. Word-of-Mouth has moved to the digital realm.

Online review sites exist for a few reasons, but one of the most popular reasons is that these reviews attract a lot of attention to businesses they are written for, and people love to read reviews.

They especially like to find reviews on a business they are thinking about doing business with. And some businesses have taken advantage of this situation like Zappos.com.

Zappos decided to do something different than other big companies and instead of spending tons of money on advertising, they invested that money into creating an exceptional customer experience by having the best customer service they could offer.

The result has been nothing short of amazing as Zappos is well known for providing the best in customer service. The reviews they get drive their bottom line because those happy customers leave reviews, and those reviews get read by other prospects. Not to mention that this form of promotion costs less to manage than other forms of advertising.

If you want to learn how to take advantage of Digital Word-of-Mouth marketing, contact us and we’ll show you how to get started building your company’s reputation.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Online Advertising Benefits Over Traditional Advertising

December 20, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, marketing strategy, offline marketing, online advertising, online marketing, pay per click, PPC

There are many benefits to doing online advertising over the traditional model.

One of those is the cost difference between the two. Traditional advertising, such as billboards or television spots (commercials) can cost quite a bit of money for a single 30-second spot.

Online advertising uses a platform where you are charged by how many times an ad is clicked. This is called Pay-per-click or ‘PPC’ advertising. It’s not nearly as expensive with an average cost per click of 0.63 cents for display ads.

With online advertising, you’re getting instant traffic. You could run traditional advertising and online advertising in a race side by side, and you’ll get online customers a lot quicker than traditional.

However, the biggest benefit is that with online advertising is that you can get detailed data on everyone that sees your ads.

You can also split test ads for the same cost, find out who interacted with your ads, where they were from, which ad they liked better, and what converts and what doesn’t. You can then optimize your ads with the data you collected.

Let’s say you ran an ad and 100 people clicked it, but no one bought anything, then you would know there is a problem somewhere and be able to fix it and optimize each ad.

Once you spend money on a television ad, that’s it. No way to optimize it. Having control over your online ads such as when they are shown, and how much money you are spending is crucial for success, while not breaking the bank on ads that aren’t converting.

But running a successful online advertising campaign can be tricky. It takes some knowledge and learning how to setup everything properly to run highly successful campaigns.

There is a lot of competition, and you need every bit of experience you can get on your side.

If you would like to learn more about setting up a successful online advertising campaign, let us know.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

4 Warning Signs that Your Website Needs a Redesign

December 18, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, branding, building your business, marketing strategy, online marketing, web design, website marketing

Time for a website redesign?

At Agapi Marketing & Consulting Ltd., we want to make sure your business looks irresistible online. Our experts have compiled a list of 4 warning signs that your website might need a total redesign.

1. Your site takes more than 3 seconds to load

If your site takes longer than two seconds to load, you can not expect people to sit around and wait for the content to show up. According to a survey from Akamai, 49-percent of consumers expect a site to load in two seconds or less. Testing the speed of your website is easy. Open your website on multiple devices such as phones, tablets, and desktop computers to check the speed.

2. Some of the features or content do not display properly

Check your website regularly to make sure logos, photos, and outside links are working properly.

3. Your site is difficult to view and navigate on mobile

Check to make sure your website is usable on a wide range of mobile devices. The last thing you want is to lose a potential customer because your website is not responsive.

4. You’re Not Seeing Any Business Results.

Is your website bringing in leads and sales? If not, then it is definitely time to consider a redesign.

If one or more of these 4 warning signs apply to your website, our experts can help you create the best version of your website.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

10 Highly Effective Ways to Promote Your Business with Social Media

December 16, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, client engagement, client retention, online marketing, social media, social media marketing

Do you promote with social media to work for your benefit?

Follow these 10 strategies to reach social media success!

1. Choose the Right Platforms

Every business is different. Make sure you consider both your customers and your business. Find out what social media sites your audience uses most, and think about which sites are the best fit for your products, too.

2. Create Unique Content for Each Platform

Your customers use different social media sites for various reasons and purposes. Make sure you’re crafting content that reflects the strengths of each platform.

3. Create a Social Media Calendar

Get organized by creating social media calendars to help you post consistently and effectively.

4. Optimize Post Times & Frequency

For that calendar, make sure you incorporate the best times to post on each site and the optimal frequency of posts.

5. Encourage Engagement

Make sure your social media is social! Interactive posts will encourage your customers to engage with you.

6. Target Your Social Media Outreach Expertly

Go for quality over quantity with your outreach: utilize your business advocates, peers, and “big fish” influencers to your advantage.

7. Avoid Over-Promoting Your Brand

Don’t give in to the temptation to directly promote yourself every time. Some experts recommend the 1-in-7 rule: for every 1 openly promotional post, make 6 content posts.

8. Share Video

Visual content, especially video, is a proven attention-grabber.

9. Build a Community Around Your Brand

Another common pitfall is trying to get the most followers possible. Instead, we recommend you focus on cultivating a loyal, engaged customer base.

10. Provide Value to Your Followers

To keep them engaged, give your customers something useful, whether you entertain or inform them. This will help you gain followers and spread your content to a wider consumer base.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

What You Should Know About the Latest Design Trends for 2018

December 14, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, online marketing, web design, website, website marketing

Design trends for the upcoming year!

If you own a website, or even several websites, it’s a good idea you know and understand the design changes that have been happening over the last couple of years.

We’re talking about how a change in technology, and change in how people use your website, are directly affecting shifts in design.

Website design as it was a few years ago, has changed to meet a whole new type of user, mostly the mobile device user. In fact, mobile devices have changed the way many big company websites are designed, such as Apple and Microsoft, who made it far easier for their customers to navigate and find what they are looking for.

Many design changes seem to have been driven by mobile devices. In other words, these changes had to take place for mobile users to be able to navigate websites on small screens. If you want to see what we mean, find an old online website that isn’t designed for mobile use, and try to navigate it. If it has lots of menu items, and even menu dropdowns, you will find it unfriendly as you try to see those tiny buttons and find what you are looking for.

The changes that do make it easier, and give a great experience are things like; better use of negative space, using bold and expressive typography instead of heavy loading images that eat up bandwidth for the user, using cinemagraphs instead of static images or full blown videos.

There are some other cutting-edge design tricks like scroll triggered animation such as the new Mac Pro on Apple’s website.

Another thing you can do is create a website application hybrid. A good example for this would be Pinterest. When going to the Pinterest website, users are asked if they want to download the application because ‘Pinterest is best viewed with our application’. And applications are amazing because they can learn and react to each user’s preferences and styles. And of course, Facebook is also another example of taking the desktop website and converting it to an interactive application.

Other things like Intelligent Conversation Bots who can answer questions like: what your store hours are, or what your prices are. You would simply type in the URL where you want to go, and then have a conversation with a virtual helper on that website. It’s fairly high tech stuff that you will likely see more of soon. You will want to take advantage of these new design changes because they will ultimately drive more conversions, and you will have happier customers.

Want us to take a look at your website to see if it’s optimized for a great user experience no matter what device your visitors are using? We can provide an evaluation and get your website fully optimized.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

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Tag: agapi marketing

Reputation management is key to building trust online.

Online business reviews can make a huge impact on your company.

Is a low website conversion rate getting in the way of your business’s success?

What are the important design elements you should have on your website?

There are many reasons why you should use AdWords Pay-per-click Marketing:

Many businesses don’t seem to take advantage of online word-of-mouth marketing.

There are many benefits to doing online advertising over the traditional model.

Time for a website redesign?

Do you promote with social media to work for your benefit?

Design trends for the upcoming year!